Case Summary

Mrs. James T. Dickey, the mother of 17-year-old Edna and 13-year-old Geraldine Sullivan, petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus to gain custody of the girls on August 10, 1920.The writ was directed at Mother Saint Lawrence, the Mother Superior of the House of the Good Shepherd, a convent and home for "delinquent girls" in Omaha. The girls' deceased father had placed the girls there before his death, and the Mother Superior refused to relinquish the sisters to their mother's custody. According to the Omaha Daily Bee, shortly after Mr. Dickey's death, his wife remarried and moved to Washington, D.C. The writ was successful, and when the girls appeared in court on August 11, judge Willis G. Sears granted Mrs. Dickey custody, although they had originally scheduled to appear before judge A.C. Troup. Allegedly, when the verdict was announced, the girls cried, hugging the representative sent with them from the convent and said that they didn't want to go.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Institutional

Petition subtype(s)

• Convent

Sites of significance

• Home of the Good Shepherd (Omaha, Nebraska)

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

Case Citation

Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 22: ca. 1919 - 1920, p. 629; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 92: Doc. 22-506 to 22-637, Jun. 28, 1920 - Aug. 11, 1920, No. 22-629

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 11 and 20 pages

Repository(s)

• Douglas County District Court (Omaha, Nebraska)

State

• Nebraska

Tag(s)

• Children
• Institutionalization

People

• Dickey, Mrs. James T. (petitioner)
• Sullivan, Edna (bound party)
• Sullivan, Geraldine (bound party)
• Mossman, Harland L. (Harlan L. Mossman) (petitioner attorney)
• Lawrence, Mother Saint (holding party)
• Troupe, A. C. (Troup) (judge)
• Sears, Willis G. (judge)

• Additional parties

  Clark, Michael L. [sheriff]

  Dickey, James T. [Edna and Geraldine's deceased father and the petitioner's husband]

  Haye, Charles W. [deputy]

  Jelen, Oldrich J. [notary]

  Smith, Robert [clerk]